Between Dusty Shelves
by GardenofRama
Summary: LJ. one shot. what would happen if Lily started to listen to James and James spoke his true feelings?


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything here, never will, except the plot. ****  
**

**Between Dusty Shelves**

Lily Evans sat exhausted in the depths of the library after yet another mountain of homework. The mass of dusty shelves separated her from the rest of the student population. This had always been her place and no one else took it. No one dared to because Lily was almost as famous for her temper towards anyone who disturbed her while working than actually working. She hated the piles of work she got but somehow had developed a routine to cram everything in. Normally after she finished work she'd go for a bath, today was no exception but there would be a certain obstruction for her to overcome before she would reach the tower. Most people would see this as part of the job as Head Girl, Lily saw it as a particularly annoying creature whose main aim in life was to cause her grief.

This particularly annoying creature happened to be the Head Boy who had somehow succeeded in forcing a group of fourth year Hufflepuff girls in moving out of their desk which was closest to Lily so James could spend the hours not doing his homework, but in writing a letter. The Hufflepuffs were astonished to see him in the library let alone working. To James' joy Lily hadn't noticed a thing being too busy with her potions homework at the time and for four hours of writing and crossing out and frustrated sighs James had nothing to produce but dozens of crumpled pieces of parchment and two wasted bottles of ink.

Madam Pince, the librarian, who had given up on removing Lily from the library two years ago trusted her to close and lock the door behind her when she left. So Lily, who presumed she was alone, got the shock of her life when she was turning from her desk to return to the tower. Sirius swore later that he had heard the high-pitched scream followed by some distant thuds when he was playing an innocent game of exploding snap with Peter.

"What in blazes hell are you doing here Potter!" gulped Lily as she gasped for breath clutching the table for support.

James, who himself had jumped when Lily screamed, had gone silent as he picked up Lily's books and parchment. He thought this was the best tactic as he tried to gather his thoughts. He just hoped he wasn't going to make a complete fool of himself, like he usually did when she was within 50 feet of him.

"Potter? You haven't answered me," said Lily a bit more fiercely, her temper slightly rising, as she bent down to pick up her remaining books. "Potter?"

"Oh, well I…um, what I mean to say is," stuttered James. "Well I…I don't know how to say this, but um, well…"

"What is it? Spit it out!" exasperated Lily, wondering why on earth James was stuttering at her! He never did! Normally he had some smart or cheeky answer that usually ended in him asking her out, no matter how much Lily threatened to hex him and this annoyed her to no end.

James was furious with himself! "Great," he thought, "just great, you can't even put a sentence together, way to impress her, she'll really want to know you now!"

Lily started to tap her foot with impatience. He always made her impatient for some reason and he always made her temper rise. Lily pondered these thoughts for a moment before giving up. She decided she'd had enough. She grabbed her stuff off James; stood up and said in the best cold, hard voice she could muster.

"James, I don't know what has gotten into you or why you are creeping around the library when its closed but I don't want to know. Now I will only ask you once to leave me alone and after that, well, I can't be held responsible for my behaviour towards you which will be painful."

She started to move towards the door but that was the last thing James wanted her too do, his last chance and he blew it. He stopped thinking about what might happen if he said this and that and just went on gut instinct. He jumped up and took three quick strides after Lily and stood in front of her. "It's now or never," he thought.

"Lily," he began. "Lily, please allow me to explain myself, please."

After what seemed to be an agonizing lifetime she replied. "Ok, but no nonsense, no jokes and no tricks, got it?"

"Of course!" he breathed with relief, finally he could explain himself! "I'd never do such a thing! Well where too begin? I suppose I should tell you why I'm here. I've been here for the past four hours trying to write a letter, a letter to you, a letter to explain why I act like I do, but no matter how hard I concentrated or no matter how much parchment I used the right words wouldn't come out. I have no idea why I act like I do around you, something in my mind thinks that you'd like it I suppose. Anyway, when I saw you getting up to leave I panicked, I really wanted to tell you this evening, I made myself promise I would and I guess I frightened you when you turned around, you certainly made me jump!"

He'd never spoken so much to Lily before in his life without being hexed, he was on a roll and Lily could see that, but what surprised Lily the most was that she believed what he was saying. He couldn't talk to her without fear of her wand so he wanted to write it down. She started to feel really bad about it.

"You looked at me," he continued, " and my mind went blank, it's never done that with anyone else. Only you can do that to me Lily, only you can reduce me to a gibbering wreak like I am now, only you have made me so frustrated to the point of complete and utter confusion and dislike, I only ask of you that you don't abuse it by making me a laughing stock, I can do that quite well by myself thanks. Please don't hate me for it, it's just something that I can't change no matter how much I've told myself I need to because I know I'll never have a chance with you, I've realised that now but I would like to be friends or at least acquaintances, it's up to you."

Lily was speechless, this was the last thing she expect James to tell her! She tried to gather her thoughts, to tell him something that would keep him away when it hit her. She had always tried to keep him away! She had always kept him at arms length! But why? She never did it with anyone else, except perhaps the Slytherins, but they didn't matter. She looked up into James' eyes, those heavenly eyes and all feelings of hatred left her. Why not give him a chance at friendship? If anything it would do her and the school good.

James had looked down into Lily's green eyes to find she was staring back; fear had crept into his stomach as he awaited her response, if there was going to be any.

Nobody except Lily and James ever knew what happened next. Though people did try to find out, no one more so than Sirius who wanted to hear every detail from the spiders on the ceiling to the colour of the ink he used to unsuccessfully write the letter. He felt so much pride in James for finally telling her and thought himself as one of the contributors to it since he had delighted in removing a seventh year Ravenclaw from the vicinity earlier on. Of course he recounted the tale on their wedding to which he was the best man. Though James did whatever was in his power to stop him, including threatening him, but it didn't work and soon everyone found out about how they made up except for those last few details where Sirius decided to improvise. This ended him up on the chandelier with no voice under a sea of laughter. Lily replaced her wand in her dress and James announced that due to unforeseen circumstances the best man's speech was going to have to finish early.

"Nice," James whispered to his wife when he sat down. "About time he was shut up for a while."

"Well I seem to remember a certain boy who spent countless times in chandeliers when he was in Hogwarts no so long ago," replied Lily laughing and taking another sip out of her water glass.

"Yes, I remember that too, it was quite painful you know! I'm going to have to be more careful when you have your wand!" he retorted.

"About damn time!" she said before pulling her husband in for a kiss.


End file.
